What Does it Take to Develop a Competency Program?

What Does it Take to Develop a Competency Program?

Glad to see you’ve pressed onward! So, in the second of our three articles, we’ll focus this article on understanding how a competency management system works, and the advantages of having a CMS program to develop the skills of a new and emerging workforce here in the US.

Have you ever started a new job, and then wondered if you can actually do the job? It’s been said, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

David Dunning and Justin Kruger studied the journey of learning new skills and mastering knowledge and understanding, recorded in The Dunning-Kruger Effect. They observe a person’s naive illusion of competence when first learning something new (Figure 1). DunningKruger emphasize that trying something for the first time comes with a false sense of confidence and without optimism, people may give up before they even try. Over time, with some gained self-awareness in their work experiences, people realize how much learning is required and gradually persevere to press on to their goals.

For the first time in America, the next generation is entering frontline jobs (think blue-collar) with little to no one to coach them due to the accelerated retirements of those with decades of experience. Consequently, the new workers don’t fully understand what’s required to achieve high level competency in their new role.

Many companies rely heavily on their older, long term frontline employees to pass on their practical tribal knowledge to the next generation of workers, but as these senior workers retire or leave, company’s aren’t making changes to address the information gap. As a result, Deloitte reports the next generation workforce turnover rate is between 18-24 months.

Over 30 years ago, a majority of first world industrialized nations moved to competency management for their frontline job roles to ensure new employees developed the required skillset needed for their role. In this article, we’ll review the core components needed for a competency program and how these programs can improve and become a game-changer in our operations.

To read the second article in a series of three posts, click here for the FULL article: What Does it Take to Develop a Competency Program

Is it time to add a competency program to your organization and improve the frontline culture of your operations? Shea Capability & Compliance Solutions and Shea Writing & Training Solutions have the solutions you may need to help you improve your frontline. Browse our sites and if we can help add value to your bottom line, give us a call.

Be on the lookout for our third and final article, What Is The Key To Assuring The Skillset Of Your Frontline Workforce, to find out how a company can assure continued skillset with their frontline workforce.

The first article can be found here: After 47 Years Of Dropping TRIR Rates, WHY Are They Now On The Rise?